director

I am an Irish documentary maker.

I like to make intimate, enlightening and thought provoking documentaries that help shed some light and get people talking.

Without the people I film with there would be no documentaries for me to make, which is why above and beyond all else my focus is on developing open and trusting relationships with those I film and finding ways to translate their emotions and their stories into compelling creative films that always have honesty and ethics at their heart.

I’ve spent a large chunk of my working life on the road. Getting my first break as a researcher with RTE, the Irish state broadcaster, I got to shoot my first report in 1998 while on assignment in Albania during the conflict in Kosovo. Following this I began working as a photographer & videographer with Irish NGO Concern’s emergency response team- documenting their field work in humanitarian crises across the globe before returning to broadcasting as a freelance director.

In 2001 I spent a year in Venezuela with co-director Donnacha O’Brien, where we filmed “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (aka “Chavez- Inside the Coup” for broadcast tv) about the failed coup against President Chavez. The documentary won international acclaim and continues to be used in media courses across the world.

I now live in Ireland but grew up in Paris and speak fluent French and Spanish.

I AMis a little short myself and editor Paul Mullen put together in a day for fun having failed to get any finance on board to turn it into a proper doc. But it didn’t disappear! It was shown at the Fastnet Film Fest last summer and though unpolished I think it captures Yonela in all her positivity & creativity!

Yonela Tyatyeka – aka Myzolator– is a young lesbian hip hop artist in Cape Town, South Africa. When her sister was murdered for also being lesbian Myzolator use her powerful music and words to fight back

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COMING SOON MY WAR ON DRUGS – TRUE LIVES.

This is a powerful, engaging and emotional, character driven documentary looking at Ireland’s losing war on drugs through the eyes of Anne Buckley,a gutsy and engaging survivor of heroin addiction. Anne spent 17 years addicted to heroin and methadone. Today she’s a determined young woman and student of journalism who is willing tell her story with great insight and honesty. Her journey has taken her from the stairwells of Fatima, through life on the streets, prison, attempted suicide and detox to where she is today- a college student, 5 years clean, rebuilding her life and relationships one step at a time.

I am currently in pre production on a number of documentaries including one on foster care and another on the experiences of growing up as the child of a human rights activist.